Chapter 4 - The Weight in the Water
Emily weighed almost nothing. As David pulled her against his chest, he felt the sharp jut of her shoulder blades through her thin, soiled pajamas. She wrapped her arms around his neck with desperate, crushing force, burying her face into his shoulder as silent, shuddering sobs wracked her small frame.
"I've got you," David choked out, tears finally breaking free and tracking hot down his cold cheeks. "I've got you, baby. You're safe. We're getting out of here right now."
He scooped her up into his arms, standing quickly as he prepared to retrace his steps over the fence. Every instinct screamed at him to run, to put as many miles between this house of horrors and his daughter as possible.
But as he turned toward the perimeter fence, Emily suddenly stiffened in his arms. Her tiny body went rigid as a board.
Her head snapped up, and her wide, terror-stricken eyes locked onto the swimming pool a few yards away.
The murky green water seemed to gleam maliciously under the pale moonlight. A thick, oily film coated the surface, swirling lazily in the breeze. Beneath that opaque layer, several heavy, unnatural shapes loomed in the depths, casting dark, distorted shadows against the tiled bottom of the pool.
Emily began to hyperventilate, her breath coming in short, panicked gasps. She clutched at David’s jacket, her small fingers clawing frantically at the fabric.
"Daddy... please," she whispered, her voice a fractured plea. "Don't look at the pool. Please don't look. Just take me away from here. Now!"
David stopped dead in his tracks. The hair on his arms stood on end. Mrs. Harris’s words echoed through his mind with terrifying clarity: Jason carrying several large black trash bags... threw them into the swimming pool.
"Em, what is that?" David asked, his voice dropping to a trembling whisper as he stared at the dark bulks submerged beneath the green water. "What did he put in the pool?"
Emily buried her face violently back into his shoulder, shutting her eyes tight as if she could erase the memory by sheer force of will. She shook her head back and forth so hard her tangled hair whipped across David’s chin.
"Don't look, Daddy! Don't look!" she sobbed, her voice rising into a terrified pitch.
David took a hesitant step toward the edge of the pool, his boots crunching on the wet stone. The air directly above the water carried a heavy, foul odor—not just stagnant algae, but something metallic, sickening, and undeniably organic.
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Before he could reach the coping stones to look closer, the back door of the house—the sliding glass panel hidden behind the thick curtain—suddenly slid open with a sharp, metallic screech.
David whipped around, clutching Emily tighter to his chest, his eyes locking onto the dark doorway of the house.
